[Pkg-ime-devel] Bug#708847: ibus: provide default input methods if one is not specified

[Drew Parsons]

Package: ibus
Version: 1.5.1.is.1.4.2-1
Severity: normal

One of the design philosophies in Debian is that packages should
generally "just work" when installed.  At the moment ibus does not do
this: if you install the ibus package, no input methods are included.
Hence a default installation does not work.  

(fcitx has the same problem, I mentioned it in bug #708149 but I think
I should file a separate bug for it, parallel to this bug in ibus)

Of course ibus does not know if you want Korean, Japanese or Chinese
input (or which version of them). Nevertheless by pulling in no
method, it appears to a dumb casual user as though ibus is just
broken. I think it would be better for casual users if some input
methods (the most common input method of each language) were installed
by default, unless the user specifies a specific one.
 
 
It is useful to make a comparison with xserver-xorg.  xserver-xorg
installs all video drivers via xserver-xorg-video-all, unless a user
specifies a specific one (which provides xorg-driver-video). The
dependency is Depends: xserver-xorg-video-all | xorg-driver-video.

By analogy, all that needs to be done is add to ibus
     Depends: ibus-input-method-common | ibus-input-method

Each ibus input method (ibus-googlepinyin, ibus-hangul, ibus-skk, ibus-libthai,
etc) then 
     Provides: ibus-input-method.

And ibus-input-method-common is a simple dummy package that depends on
selected common methods (it's a separate debate which ones should be
recommended for each language!)

The patch is essentially non-invasive I think.  The outcome is that
ibus becomes more accessible (more useful) to casual users who are not
in need of one specific input method.


It's easy for me to generate a patch for you, let me know if that would be
helpful.

Cheers,
Drew Parsons

-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.8-2-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_AU.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_AU.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages ibus depends on:
ii  gconf-service     3.2.5-1+build1
ii  gconf2            3.2.5-1+build1
ii  gnome-icon-theme  3.4.0-2
ii  libc6             2.17-3
ii  libgconf-2-4      3.2.5-1+build1
ii  libglib2.0-0      2.36.1-2build1
ii  libgtk2.0-0       2.24.18-1
ii  libibus-1.0-0     1.5.1.is.1.4.2-1
ii  librsvg2-common   2.36.1-1
ii  libx11-6          2:1.5.0-1
ii  python            2.7.3-5
ii  python-ibus       1.5.1.is.1.4.2-1
ii  python-notify     0.1.1-3
ii  python-xdg        0.19-5

Versions of packages ibus recommends:
ii  ibus-gtk               1.5.1.is.1.4.2-1
ii  ibus-gtk3              1.5.1.is.1.4.2-1
ii  ibus-qt4               1.3.1-2.1
ii  im-config [im-switch]  0.21
ii  python-appindicator    0.4.92-2

Versions of packages ibus suggests:
pn  ibus-doc  <none>

-- no debconf information